GOP Vows to Make Health Law an Issue in 2014

Republican campaign officials vowed to make Obamacare a centerpiece of 2014 elections Sunday morning, citing the HealthCare.gov’s problems and the number of cancelled insurance policies as proof that the legislation will not work.

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that the health-care law will be “toxic” for Democrats in the midterm elections. He pointed to the 16 Senate Democrats up for reelection next year who voiced their frustration with the law’s rollout to the White House last week as a clear sign that the party is concerned.

“We will tattoo it to their forehead in 2014,” he said of the controversy surrounding the law’s rollout. “We will run on it. And they will lose because of it.”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.), chair of the Democratic National Committee, defended the law on CNN and said Democratic candidates will be able to use it as an advantage in midterm elections. “Americans have been feeling the benefits [of the law] since 2010,” she said, pointing to provisions that allow young people to remain on their parents’ insurance plans until the age of 26 and prevent insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

She added that less than 5% of Americans in the individual market will be required to change their plans under the law and said that their new plans will provide better coverage. And she criticized Republican attempts to dilute the law, such as a bill by Rep. Fred Upton (R., Mich.) that would allow people to keep their plan and authorize insurance companies to keep offering plans that do not meet the law’s insurance standards.

“To suggest that we have to do that, and create two separate tracks that are going to allow people to be discriminated against again and not have good quality health care, that’s unacceptable,” she said. “We’re not going backwards.”

Ms. Wasserman Schultz rejected analysis of the Virginia gubernatorial race that said Obamacare—which Virginia voters oppose 46-53%, according to exit polls—closed the gap between Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe and his Republican challenger, Ken Cuccinelli. Mr. McAuliffe won the election by a margin of 3%, a narrower margin than expected, as 81% of those who oppose Obamacare voted for Mr. Cuccinelli.

“Obamacare did not have anything to do with Tuesday’s outcome,” she said, adding Mr. McAuliffe won the state by a margin similar to President Barack Obama’s 2012 finish in the state.

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